Journalist Anti-FAQ

I was sorting out my bookmarks over the weekend (oh yes, my weekends just fly by when I don’t have any deadlines) and I came across an old favourite: The Fleet Street Forum Journalist Anti-FAQ. [Update 10 March 2010 - this site is no longer available.] This contains ‘advice’ for PR companies. To illustrate, here is one of my favourites:

18. Maintain multiple lists of journalists according to their importance to your clients. Make sure the journalists know who’s on each list and where they rank. Journalists like to know their place.

Perhaps because I’m doing less journalism and more corporate work, my views on PR companies are softening. Maybe it’s a case of poacher turned gamekeeper.

However, once again a PR company reminded me just how poor they can be a couple of weeks ago. It’s a long story involving a forgotten invitation to a client’s meet-and-greet dinner. Needless to say it was my old friends: see Annoying PR Tricks and How to Annoy a Journalist (item 14).

Related posts:

1. Anti-case studies
2. How to annoy a journalist
3. Do we have a story for you! (from the Economist)
4. When writing PR for an anti-spam firm, don’t spam
5. Why PR doesn’t work